Back catalogue: All genres

Review: It's Squid, but maybe not as you knew them in short form. While musi-cally not a million miles from the earliest samples we had from the band, Bright Green Field is a different place that we find them in. An "imaginary cityscape", as the outfit have apparently put it, which is home to a multitude of things - people, events, movements, memories.

So whereas before things took a pretty intimate, even domesticated lyr-ical slant, here the scope is much greater. Track titles like 'G.S.K.' should be enough to prove the point (a not-so-subtle nod to Big Pharma giant GlaxmoSmithKline). Elsewhere themes range from aggressive propa-ganda of right wing politics to physical space itself. An outfit real-ising what can be done with the reach of their voice (or maybe just fi-nally releasing it), while remaining true to the punk, art rock, jazz fusion you were hoping for from this confident Bristolian debut.

Review: Squid return to Warp with O Monolith, amping up the indie festival favourites' new penchant for fast, hardcore jangle-jams peppered with electronic glitchings and odd subject matters. Bright Green Field laid the formula at our feet, but we're certain it'll be O Monolith that best represents Ollie Judge and co.'s newly impassioned, kooky sound. Still, the playful song structures and exclaimed vocals remain present. New highlights like 'Undergrowth' capture it best: raucous blary horn sections, frightening choruses, and a sound that evokes that of a hellish circus, all make this one a rather enigmatic, intelligent listen. We'd expect nothing less from Squid.

Review: There's no 'difficult second album' syndrome evidence on Squid's sophomore full-length. While it lacks the forthright, math rock and post-punk-inspired immediacy of the Brighton band's acclaimed full-length debut, the density, inventiveness and experimentation that marks out O Monolith more than makes up for it. For proof, check recent single 'Swing (In a Dream)', a wall of sound affair that builds through approaching waves of instrumentation (first picturesque 16-bit synths and acoustic guitars, then grooves, trumpet solos and finally grizzled guitars), the laidback post-punk-funk of low-slung treat 'Undergrowth', and the skittish, jazz-flecked, layered soundscape that is 'The Blades', where squally horn solos and dense alt-rock guitars catch the ear.

Review: Brighton post-punk band Squid aren't resting on their laurels. Back with a relatively quick-fire follow-up to their second album, O Monolith, their third album has been announced with the single 'Crispy Skin'. Unsettlingly, the band's singer Ollie Judge has said it's a song about Cannibalism inspired by the novel 'Tender Is The Flesh'. Sonically, across this album, the band are pushing boundaries, finding their own voice moreso than when they broke onto the scene at the tail end of the 2010's with a brass-tinged take on no wave - something like the lovechild of BadBadNotGood and James Chance. Their original sensibility and aesthetic, showing a desire to open new doors in the creative world, is helped along by contributors including Clarissa Connelly, Tony Njoku, Pozi's Rosa Brook, percussionist Zands Duggan, and the Ruisi Quartet. And Marta Salogni and Grace Banks, who produced this Mercury Prize contender of an album alongside the band and Dan Carey.

Review: It's been a boom period for British post-punk, but with more than five years passing since the craze hit its peak, it's become easier to separate the wheat from the chaff and recognise those who are here to stay and those who had very little to sustain any interest. Squid are here to stay, having blossomed from their shouty beginning into one of the most compelling British bands of the past ten years, with genre-defying qualities and boundless creative spirit. This new album is about evil, nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong. Recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End with Marta Salogni and Grace Banks and Dan Carey on additional production, it's a real gem with a real chance of being up for nomination at the next Mercury Prize ceremony.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


It's been a boom period for British post-punk, but with more than five years passing since the craze hit its peak, it's become easier to separate the wheat from the chaff and recognise those who are here to stay and those who had very little to sustain any interest. Squid are here to stay, having blossomed from their shouty beginning into one of the most compelling British bands of the past ten years, with genre-defying qualities and boundless creative spirit. This new album is about evil, nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong. Recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End with Marta Salogni and Grace Banks and Dan Carey on additional production, it's a real gem with a real chance of being up for nomination at the next Mercury Prize ceremony.

Review: This massive anthology box set compiles all five volumes of the Stereolab Switched On series: 94 non-album tracks and sought after deep cuts by the group. Beginning with the original Switched On compilation LP from 1992, the series that ensued - though entirely comprised of deep cuts - still makes for a comprehensive jaunt through the Anglo-French auteurs' oeuvre, which never once lets up on quality. Every track here could've appeared on a full-length, so it's a testament to the band's work ethic that they simply had this much material to follow up with. Warp's comprehensive new 8xCD includes experimental highlights such as the original weirdo-chanson 'Plastic Mile', an Autechre remix of 'Refractions In The Plastic Pulse' and the stripped back 'XXXOOO', among many other gemstones.

Review: Stereolab's superb Switched On series hits the fifth volume here with another essential collection of their rarest releases. Also included along the way are some unreleased tunes and despite this being the fifth volume it is still impeccably high in standard. Just check out Autechre's remix of 'Refractions in the Plastic Pulse' for evidence - it's as thrilling as they come while Stereolab's second collaboration with Nurse With Wound is another good one. It is 31 minutes of psychedelic kraut to really lose your mind to. Fans old and new are sure to lap up this one.